Anybody tried BYOND?

[Inferny]

I'm planning on doing a project (Not Pokémon), and so I decided to look over the fangame forums here for ideas. Now I've seen that way, way more than half of all the games are made in RPG Maker.

I've never used RPG Maker before, so I donwloaded it. It works really well, even better than Eclipse which is also really easy to use, but I still find it inferior to Build Your Own Net Dream, BYOND.

Why haven't I seen a single BYOND created Pokémon game here? BYOND is a very, very simple programming language which is very easy to learn, and it has inbuilt multiplayer compatibility by default, you only need to host your game and let people come on.

BYOND can be embedded on other sites to make completely individual games, though that's not recommended, since you can create a "hub" which the game and servers will show up on in a few clicks. Then people can go to their BYOND which they downloaded and view it.

Well, it's hard to explain, but I don't see why such a simple but extremely powerful engine is never being used! I myself usually use BYOND when making games, and it can do pretty much anything from a perfectly functional Pokemon game to pong.

 

[thepsynergist]

Unless BYOND has a Pokemon Starter Kit, people won't use it. Almost all of the games made here aren't programmed and are made using Poccil's Essentials Kit.

 

[carmaniac]

Yeah pretty much what thepsynergist said, although most people in this community are far to lazy to learn how to code and make their own ones in RPG Maker yet alone a whole game from scratch, there are a handful who will go from scratch but not very many.

 

[Cilerba]

It's not that anyone's lazy. It's just that this is a hobby for most people and they don't want to learn how to code just for something they do in their spare time.

 

[Inferny]

Half of BYOND consists of the same games with different names. It's easy to find a source code somebody else wrote, edit whatever you want then call it yours. Pokemon Essentials is pretty much the same thing, just that the scripting language in RMXP is much harder to learn.

 

[Mrchewy]

Most hackers/game developers here want to create a game, not because they enjoy the programming or technical side of things, but because they enjoy the actual game design aspect. I can't speak for everyone of course, as I'm sure there's some who thoroughly enjoy programming.

With things like the Starter Kit and ROM bases at our finger tips, though, why would we use something else when the hardest (and arguably dullest) parts of making a game are already done for us?

It's not about what an engine/programming language can do, but how easily it can be done. You could potentially create a fully-fledged Pokémon game in any modern programming or scripting language, but we stick to RGXP/ROM hacking since the foundations have already been built for us.

It's easy to find a source code somebody else wrote, edit whatever you want then call it yours. Pokemon Essentials is pretty much the same thing, just that the scripting language in RMXP is much harder to learn.

Not exactly. Without sounding like I'm sucking up to poccil or anything, Essentials in itself is an incredibly complex system with hundreds of man hours put into it. Despite its messy and buggy nature, it's actually quite the programming feat. Yes, the RGXP engine itself sucks, I agree, but Essentials is the first example I've seen of Pokémon being reverse-engineered in its near-entirety. To say that Essentials is a bunch of open source scripts just thrown together is pretty inaccurate.

Of course what puzzles me the most is why this mysterious man called "poccil" would come in, write tens of thousands of lines of code for a Pokémon starter kit of all things, then disappear.

 

[carmaniac]

It's not that anyone's lazy. It's just that this is a hobby for most people and they don't want to learn how to code just for something they do in their spare time.

Yeah true, like me, I make games as a hobby out of what ever free time there is, coding is only seen as an essential if they want to stretch their hobby a bit more :).

 

[Inferny]

I guess, was just wondering. BYOND is something you can learn in 4 hours then make absolutely anything, and it doesn't require loads of configuration to put online :'

 

[Zeffy]

BYOND sucks, though. If you ask me, I'd use RPG Maker 2k3 rather than BYOND. And thing is, that crap doesn't work for me either. All my opinion, though.

 

[Inferny]

Sorry for late reply, just wanted to say that BYOND doesn't suck at all :p RPGM is just all preconfigured and you can do pretty much anything by clicking buttons, with the more detailed stuff has to be scripted in. BYOND must be coded all the way through.

That just allows more customization, though. And realtime combat >:3

 

[DarkDoom3000]

Problem is people would have to make their own engines and stuff. most people here are hobbyists. They aren't getting any money, nor fame. It's just not worth the effort.

 

[Arma]

Y'know when people start a project, they usually set a list of demands for themselves, most of the time on e these demands is "efficiency", why should we try and create something thats already exists?
Like Darkdoom3000 and mrchewy said, It isn't worth all the trouble, at least, for most of us.

 

[JakeG]

I have had a go at RMXP and although I haven't tried making a game on it I have played a few games on BYOND. I find RMXP is better for single player (normal games like B/W) and BYOND is good just for multiplayer and rp.